Raw
by Entice
Summary: Because maybe Ironman has finally met his match... AU Tony/OC
1. Of Ignorance and Hot Bods

**Saw Iron man some weeks ago! I love Tony Stark! (He's mine pepper pots! Mmmiiinnnnneeee!) Had to write a story bout him and his hotness, duh! Haha, luvs u's reader….**

Lainie straitened her glasses and tried to pay attention to Dr. Carlson's lecture on the powers of radioactivity, though she did wonder if he could have chosen a more juvenile topic. Taking a quick glance around the room, she noticed that everyone looked almost as uninterested as she felt. And no wonder, Dr. Carlson had just got into the finer details of his subject's instability. After three hours, extra emphasis on the _just_.

"This is due to its nuclear structure…" Oh, god WE GET IT she thought, debating whether or not to just get up and leave the room. Just as she had decided to screw politeness the door to the room swung open. And in walked…

Anthony Stark. Lainie's eyes, along with everyone else's, traveled down to the glowing circle at Tony's chest, only slightly visible through his thick dress shirt. Unlike every other female in the room, however, that's where her eyes stopped. As always when she came in contact with a particularly interesting piece of machinery and science her brain began to think of ways to make it more effective.

_I could make it smaller_, she thought, _all I would need to do is compact the generator system in a less ostentatious model_. Her hands, on their own accord, began to sketch the new and improved arc reactor, one much more reliable than his current life support. Dr. Carlson's lecture and even Tony's entrance were all but forgotten as her mind speed quickly through the finer details of the original model. Head bent over her paper and finger moving furiously, she didn't notice Anthony's interest on her. But then again, neither did anyone else. Yet.

"Hello everyone, sorry I'm late I got side… uh, official business came up. Hey! What's up Carls? Doing radioactivity again this year…just like last year. Glad to see you're stickin' to tradition. Right… I guess I'll sit over there by…uh. Hmm, I don't know you. Wonderful lady with the dark red hair, what's your name?"

Usually when she was working on something, she gave her whole mind to it and this time was no exception. It was necessary with the speed she was computing at. She had no idea that Tony was referring to her… she didn't even know that he was talking. And she definitely didn't notice Tony Stark's footsteps coming to a rest behind her… though everyone else did. They were all watching as the World renowned super-hero's feet led him to the pretty red-head, so into immersed in her work. Only when she felt his breath on her shoulder did she turn to look at him, surprised and embarrassed. She reached out quickly to cover her work with a hand but one of his quickly swept it aside, allowing his eyes to stare at her drawing. Suddenly, he picked up a pencil and began to trace over the pencil markings on the paper, adding changes every once and a while. She didn't really mind...well until he changed the wire connecting the base plate to the arc reactor, making it thinner so that he could also connect a branch off of it to the sub sect tubes. She yanked the pencil out of his hand indignantly.

"What are you doing?!" she whispered harshly. He looked taken back for a second, but then a smooth calm expression replaced its former one.

"If you connect it to the sub sects you can increase its energy ten fold." Lainie frowned at him and set on erasing his changes.

"Whoa whoa whoa…now what are you doing?" he caught the hand with the pencil in his. She shook of his restraint and finished restoring the change back to its original standing.

"If you attach them to those tubes, you lose over thirty percent of the reliability and it will not increase the energy but maybe… two percent, if you have extremely steady hands during the attachment process." Tony looked at her appraisingly. They were both unaware of every eye in the room on them. Many reporters, sent here as a punishment by their bosses, began to record what was happening on their phones and gossiping into their tape recorders though none of them could here the actual conversation. Even the soundless videos would be enough to get them back into the big dog's good books with the gossip Tony's followers craved.

"My hands are very steady. Versatile too." Tony whispered into Lainie's ear. She blushed a little but her left cheek rose slightly, rewarding his humor. Then she turned to face him, curiosity in her eyes. Her blue ones looked strait into his. Surprised, his countenance became taken aback. Most times people had trouble getting up the courage to look at his face. Let alone into his gaze.

"Even if you could get your two percent, which I severely doubt… no matter how steady your hands are… what good is it? The forty percent reliability greatly outweighs it." She spoke in a soft whisper, watching the effect of her words. His brown eyes grew dark and his mouth set in a grim line.

"When your life is on the line, two percent, though I assure you I could get much much more out of it, could be the deciding factor on whether you get your ass fried, miss…" she bit her lip. Then she sighed.

"Lainie McCormic."

"Anthony Stark." He murmured back. She started to laugh.

"I think the whole world knows that. I shudder to think of the price on your head in china… though it's probably greater in Washington." He grinned.

"It's always reassuring to know I could hand myself in if I became strapped for cash." Before she could reply Dr. Carlson's crusty voice filled the air. Everyone in the room cringed.

"Though you may be an important man I society, Mr. Stark, so am I. I do believe that I am giving a seminar so if you do not mind…sit down." Tony sat immediately. "Now where was I…ah…I guess I will just have to start over. So… hello everyone, my name is Dr. Carlson and my…" everyone groaned and a couple of them snuck out. Lainie snickered and began to pack her stuff up, planning on doing the same. She became aware of Tony's eyes on her and felt another blush fill her cheeks. She looked around for her plan for the arc reactor and spotted it in his hands. Huffing, she crossed her arms and turned to glower at him. The fool was grinning as though he had just won the lottery… no wait, why would he care. He was beyond rich.

"Mr. Stark, If you would be so kind as to hand me back my property…" he looked into her eyes and she could see his mirth. She gritted her teeth and stared him down.

"But, Ms. McCormic, it I was to give it back, what would be my assurance that you would accompany me to dinner." Lainie's retort, hanging on the tip of her tongue, died in her throat.

"Huh?" she asked stupidly. Tony's grin enlarged.

"Have dinner with me." Her eyes grew wide. What the heck?! She thought. She struggled to bring herself back to the focus. Frowning, or attempting to, she glared at Anthony.

"The only reason I would go is because you had taken my property." She lied. The truth was, she knew she could draw another of her arc reactor plans. She was really just interested in Tony, his genius and his life. She would love the chance to talk to him. And she could tell by Tony's smirk that he knew that.

"Yes. That is wrong of me. And I would love to continue this discussion of right and wrong…over dinner." What a sweet talker she thought wirily. But her pride was overrun by curiosity. She reached over and snatched her paper out of his hands, surprising him.

"I'll meet you. But only because in my heart I'm still the little girl who wants to meet the superhero." And with that she turned and walked out of the room, leaving a smile on both of their lips.

Lainie sighed as she looked at herself one last time in the mirror. She hadn't done much, simply brushed her hair and changed into a nice fitting casual dress of blue satin and lace but she didn't really think that anything could be done for her; so she just replaced her glasses on her makeup less face. Finally she left the hotel room and traveled down the stairs to where Tony was waiting. She has grown up her whole life being told she was beautiful. That she had gorgeous eyes and stunning full lips, a wonderful figure. …except by the one person who really mattered. Her father had died when she was little leaving her with her mother. She always knew her mother hated her. She had only married Lainie's father for his money and had not expected to get saddled with a child. In fact, Lainie's mother had once told her that she wanted to get Lainie aborted but that Martin, Lainie's father, wouldn't let her. Once Lainie had read her father's will she finally understood why her mother kept her after her father died. Margret, Lainie's mom, would get no money if she harmed Lainie or got rid of her. And so the only way for Lainie's mom to keep getting botox was to keep Lainie.

Margret was forever trying to dye Lainie's hair and get extensions put into it. She said the red was too dark and ugly, that the hair was too short and strange in the way it curled to shape Lainie's face and ended right after her neck. That it brought too much attention to Lainie's ugly, wash out blue eyes, skin ruining freckles, and fat lips. Too much like her father. But that was why Lainie never let her. It was the one thing connecting her to the only person that ever truly loved her. But just because she kept it didn't mean that her mother's words didn't affect her. She could never look at herself without seeing her fat lips, washout eyes, skin ruining freckles, and too dark red hair.

So when Tony spoke the words

"God you're beautiful. Your hair is amazing." She couldn't help but laugh. He looked at her funnily. "Well, I was going for a 'really, cause you look so hot too Tony, your hair is more amazing' but laughing is good too, I guess."

She was laughing so hard now that she needed to hold onto something for support. Her arms grabbed something and she held on for dear life.

"Uh…is this some new kind of greeting or…" the object asked…wait, the ob… Lainie looked down to see that the 'object' happened to be Tony. Crap. She blushed through her freckles and steeped back, biting her lip in embarrassment. A strange look came over Tony's countenance and he reached out a hand towards Lainie's face but then caught himself, clearing his throat.

"Right so we should go." He raised an eyebrow at her. Grinning, she lifted one in return and ambled past him down the steps and further into the hallway.

"Are you coming hot Tony? I wouldn't want to be deprived from the presence of your amazing hair for too long." She smirked over her shoulder at him, feeling his booming laugh as she walked outside into the cold wind.

**AWWWWWWW'S. What, no AWWWWWW'S. Well then... I'll take my AWWWWW**

**WW'S elsewhere, hurmph! Just kiding….unless your really not AWWWWW'ing… because in that case HURMPH!**

**Review!! Pretty pretty pretty PPPPPPLLLLLLLEEEEEEEAAAAAAASSSSEEEEE!!**

**Kay, thank you!**

**Lurve ya,**

**Entice**


	2. Of Dates But Not Figs

_Okay I'm a really bad updater and this is forever and a bit late but I was struck with the desire to add a new chapter to this story so here it is. Hopefully you'll Enjoy _

The rode to the restaurant in a Ferrari… of course. _Because any car that the ostentatious Tony Stark could possibly own had to cost enough to feed all of south Africa_ Lainie thought. She shifted in her soft leather passenger's seat, watching the world renowned super-hero. Every couple of seconds he would turn and smirk when he caught her looking…again. She just couldn't keep her eyes off him…. _off the arc reactor_ she told herself sternly. Her mind was in science mode constantly with that piece of ingenuity around. But, though the thought made her blush, her eyes strayed towards his six pack way to often for innocence. Like now, she thought, staring at the muscles along his lean figure.

Tony cleared his throat.

"What are you thinking about right now?" she blushed. Damn, she though.

"Why couldn't you have asked me that ten seconds earlier?" she groaned with still red cheeks. He gave her a questioning look.

"Because ten seconds earlier you were thinking about…"

"The arc reactor…which, by the way, is in very close proximity to your…stomach region…" He smirked, seeing where this was going. She turned even darker crimson, looking down in an attempt to escape his piercing gaze. It was then that she noticed the odometer. Surprised, she looked out of the window to see that the speed was blurring the surroundings.

"Super Heroes don't have to follow the driving laws?" she asked, looking up again in amusement. Tony chuckled, looking at her for a brief second before returning to the road.

"Well, it sure helps to have enough money to pay the fines…the super hero thing comes into effect when their trying to take your license for bad driving…for some reason dressing in a titanium suit deters them from pushing the rules." She smiled at his sub-par joke as tony pulled into…well it looked like a dark wall-blocked alley. But Tony stark in a dark alley really didn't make any sense unless it was to knock around some heads. She turned to look at him as he let himself out of the car, handing the keys to a couple drivers who had pulled up behind them in another vehicle. Another monstrosity that could feed the entire South American continent. She got out of the Ferrari slowly, confused. The drivers, unlike Lainie didn't seem at all bemused at the surroundings but simply backed the cars up after a quick nod to Tony.

"Don't worry, this is not where were eating. It's a little lady and the tramp for me…" she grinned, and looked around for a clue to where they would be going as the two drivers pulled the cars out of the small crevice. Tony walked down the dank little path to the furthest corner. He tapped his foot on what seemed to be the back door to a some building. The door cracked open and then a laugh filled the little decrepit street.

"Tony!" an old man stepped out, careful to prevent the door from closing with a hand and clapping Tony on the back with the other. Tony was grinning at the man, giving him a little hug back before stepping away. He motioned lainie over and when she got close enough he grabbed her's hand and pulled her to meet the mysterious door keeper.

" Lainie, this is my uncle Frank, not really related, but he's cool enough that we can pretend. Uncle Frank, this is Lainie. My date." she raised an eyebrow at this but smiled at Frank, taking his pro-offered hand.

" Nice to meet you." Now it was Uncle Frank's turn to raise an eyebrow. This was the first time that Tony had every brought a girl here, in all the years he'd been visiting. He looked her up and down subtly. She was pretty sure, and fully clothed unlike most of the girls he'd seen Tony running around with…she did seem to have a little extra something. Hmmm, he mumbled a little to himself before pulling the door open wider and motioning both of the youngsters inside.

"Hahahahaha!" Lainie began to laugh as they escaped the tiny hallway that the door from the alley led from and erupted into the oh-so-famous Science museum. Tony smirk questioningly at her as Frank walked another way, calling back about getting them something to eat. Just as he was about to leave the room they were in, invention of the telephone it seemed, he turned back ; a walkie-talky came sailing through the air with strict instructions from frank to use it to contact him if they needed. Then he continued on his way leaving tony and Lainie alone.

She stepped away from him, twirling around one of the smaller cases filled with interesting tidbits and artifacts all having to do with phone technology. She was still laughing.

" So, suave debonair Anthony Stark, also know as the richest, smartest sexy man alive…in his own words, of course. This man, he takes his, equally sexy, of course, dates to the…wait for it…SCIENCE MUSEM! Nerdy." He stepped towards her, smiling but there was a slight edge to his eyes. He moved beside her and they both leaned against a wide plaque talking all about the evolution of the phone.

"well I though you of all people would appreciate this…it's…nevermind." He looked away, brushing imaginary dirt off of his pants. She bit her lip. Damn she thought. She hadn't meant to offend him, not at all. she thought it was beyond sweet for him to bring her here and original too.

"Well, though this is no date, Tony Stark, it trumps any date I've ever been on. I, for one, have a deep, burning passion for the science museum. I never been past closing of course." She smiled at him and twirled once more, grinning wildly at the perfection of it all. She did truly love the museum, and would often come to see the exhibitions, some of whose plaques she knew by heart. She started to walk away, trying to figure out which way the car exhibition was, as it was one of her favorites.

" Wait, how is this not a date?" tony called out quizzically from behind her, making her turn. She blushed slightly and cleared her throat.

"I was under the impression that this was a mutual sharing of views on the rightness and wrongness of stealing." She murmured, trying to sound witty but she was really stunned. Tony thought this was a date? He wanted to date her? She has thought that this had been a creation of a friendship between two intellectuals. Wow she was in above her head.

"Yes yes, it is. But in a dating context, darling." He was now beside her, watching her with a tilted head as if trying to solve a problem then he chuckled. " why did you think I asked you to dinner?" she bit her lip, frowning. Then she sighed melodramatically.

"wow, it seems obvious now. I..I thought you wanted…to be friends. And now I shall go die of embarrassment." She dropped her head as tony began to laugh in earnest. He wrapped an arm around her waist pulling her away to another exhibition.

" haha, okay. I haven't laughed this much in a while, Lainie. We can be 'friends' if that would make you more comfortable. I have a feeling our friendship would be one for the ages." He smiled at her, noticing when the stiffness in her body that had appeared when he had put his hand on her hip left her body. Lainie nodded egarly, relieved. She was definitely not cut out to be Tony Stark's date. Not even in an empty museum.

"Okay friend. To the Automobile section, toute suite!"

Lainie and Tony explored a good portion of the museum, reveling in the exhibitions that they shared a common interest in and arguing jokingly about the ones they didn't. When their stomachs became suitably hungry they called Frank who gave them directions to one of the better vending machines. Even though Tony promised it was no longer a date, he insisted on paying for Lainie's tuna sandwich, snickers bar and can of coke saying something about how staying out with her had actually saved him millions on the stuff he would've destroyed out of boredom at home. And who was Lainie kidding. Tony probably made $10.60 every millisecond. After their unorthodox dinner they wandered some more, not really looking at the galleries like before but just enjoying each other's company. It had been a long time since Tony had meet someone who could keep up with him even slightly from an intellectual standpoint, and even longer, if ever, that he had meet someone as refreshingly innocent as Lainie. Lainie was in awe of Tony, his intelligence was even greater than what she had gathered from the many articles and the occasional tabloid that her roommate left temptingly besides the toilet. She was working hard to hide the admiration but she didn't think she was doing that well of a job. Which, if you must know, she wasn't.

" Hey you two. I'm leaving which means you're leaving. Dare I say, 'You ain`t gotta go home, but you gotta get the hell up out of here.'" Frank called from behind them, interrupting Lainie's inspection of the Arc reactor up close. Which was good for all parties because Lainie hadn't really been looking at the Arc reactor for a while now and Tony, noticing her real interests in the area was suddenly finding it hard to remember that this wasn't a date. Tony shook his head to clear it and stood up from where they had been laying on the floor planetarium 'star gazing'. He reached a hand down to Lainie who was beat red at the intimacy of the situation that frank had caught them in. she needed to get her head straight. Tony Stark, perfect in every way though he was, was not a good crush to have. Mostly due to the fact that Tony had new girls in a snap of his finely groomed fingers and Lainie had no interest in being a one night stand…yet.

" Okay Uncle Frank. Thanks a lot." Frank waved away Tony's thanks, tilting his janitor's cap at Lainie and chuckling inside at her beet color.

"see you around miss lainie." He murmured, though he said it more like a question towards Tony who nodded.

"Definitly." Tony stated with feeling and then he and Lainie left the musem, though the front exit this time.

"I'll drop you off." Tony said quickly before he could invite Lainie back to his place under the pretense of seeing his lab and break the friendship vow. Somehow, though there was clearly attraction between them, and Tony seriously doubted that Lainie would turn him down he didn't want to mess this up. Lainie was one of the more intresting people he'd met in a while and worth so much more than one night of pleasure. Plus he was sure that Lainie wasn't that experienced.

"Uh, okay…it's so close though…" Lainie was having her own doubts about being pseudo alone with Tony but her insinuation of walking was ignored as tony pushed her into the Ferrari ( which had pulled up across the street when they walked out). During the drive home they were both silent and Lainie kept stealing glances at Tony. As the car pulled up in front of her place Lainie felt a pang of sadness. It seemed that Tony had no intrest in a friendship…

"So…" Tony cleared his throat as they walked up the steps of Lainie's brownstone. "Miss. McCormic, may I be so forward as to assume that you had as fun time tonight as I did?" he finished as they stood at the front door. Lainie smiled widely at him.

"I did . You, forward? Never." She said cheekily and he nudged her with a hip.

" okay smarty. Can I, um contact you again. I would really like to explore the possibilities of your arch reactor design. And I don't think I'll ever be able to go to the science museum alone again after the fun I've had today. You've ruined it for me and are now obligated to accompany me every time I go." They stood smiling at each other until Lainie quickly nodded and handed Tony her card silently holding in her excitement.

" Right, shall we seal it with a kiss?" Tony asked before he could stop himself. She was just so fucking beautiful, and cute and smart…he could've slapped himself for his big mouth as her eyes widened. Bright pink bloomed across her face and she looked down at her hands.

"Isn't it sleezy for a girl to kiss on the first date?" Lainie muttered, trying to regain control over her emotions. Tony lifted her face.

"Good thing this isn't a date." He leaned in, throwing his previously asserted promise of the 'friend zone' to the wind when suddenly…

"HO-LAY SHITE BALLS. TONY STARK!"

_mkkaayy there it is. ALL REVIEWS WELCOME :) thank you and goodnight!_


End file.
